A Place for Mom Helps Families Think Senior Living During the Holidays

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Strategically timed in the midst with the holiday season, A Place for Mom (APFM) has launched a new educational resource to help families initiate the senior living conversation.

The nation’s largest senior living referral source announced this week the availability of its Caregiver Toolkit, a 75-page resource that includes guides, checklists, tools and worksheets to help families learn and prepare for senior care.

With families traveling and visiting their loved ones during the holidays, the launch of APFM’s newest toolkit will enable families to proactively look for signs indicating safety and health issues that may affect their parents’ quality of life, said Jennifer Mellet, chief senior living advisor at APFM.

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“The Caregiver Toolkit is another way we’re making it easier for families to access information they may need to address a sensitive situation,” Mellet said in a written statement.

As part of the Caregiver Toolkit launch, health and wellness advocate and former co-host of Good Morning America Joan Lunden is working with APFM, sharing tips for making the most of holiday visits with aging loved ones.

Taking stock of a loved one’s home, their fridge, cabinets and assessing their physical appearance—level of grooming, weight loss or gain—are just some of the things Lunden urges families to consider during their visits.

To encourage families to have more in-depth conversations and broach the subject of senior living, Lunden also offers her personal “family interview guide,” which includes nine categories and more than 50 questions to ask aging loved ones.

The impending wave of baby boomers into the senior population will bring more than just massive numbers of potential residents. This isn’t merely a question of bulk. It’s a question of breadth, with a wider range of seniors becoming inherently trickier to serve.

Health care costs for seniors are soaring, health levels are plateauing and experts across the care continuum are searching for fixes to both. The answer could be found by going back to the basics in medical care.